president obama's lead has narrowed heading into tonight's big debate. john harwood is in denver getting ready for the big event. john? >> reporter: melissa, we've got several pieces of encouraging news for mitt romney from not only the wall street poll but swing states poll. you mentioned that mitt romney's closed the deficit among likely voters for obama from five points to three points. and in florida, he's closed from five down to one which is tied given the margin of error in our poll. in virginia, he has closed the gap from five to two. if you look at the state of ohio, a must-win state for mitt romney, mathematically possible for him to get to it without it but his strategists think he needs it. he needs to make progress there. but the fact that some of the national polls are coming back a little bit, some of the swing state polls are tightening, is a bit of an earn couragement for romney that he still has an opportunity for deficit with three or four points to change the dynamic in some way. he's got to hope that obama is not on his best game. yo